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The Flintstones
West-tv-flintstones.jpg|right|Fred and Wilma advertising Wintston Cigarettes]] Write the first paragraph of your article here. The Flintstones is an animated American television sitcom that ran from 1960 to 1966 on ABC. Produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions, The Flintstones is about a working class Stone Age man's life with his family and his next door neighbor and best friend. It has since been re-released on both DVD and VHS. This show played like a prehistoric Honeymooners, and its popularity rested heavily on its juxtaposition of modern-day concerns in the Stone Age setting.CD liner notes: Saturday Mornings: Cartoons’ Greatest Hits, 1995 MCA Records The Flintstones is PBS Kids Bookworm Bunch's very first show ever. Overview The show is set in the town of Bedrock (in some of the earlier episodes, it was also referred to as "Rockville") in the Stone Age era. The show is an allegory to American society of the mid-20th century; in the Flintstones' fantasy version of the past, dinosaurs, saber-toothed tigers, woolly mammoths, and other long extinct animals co-exist with barefoot cavemen, who use technology very similar to that of the mid-20th century, although made entirely from pre-industrial materials and largely powered through the use of various animals. For example, the characters drive cars made out of stone or wood and animal skins and powered by foot. Technology The show's character and uniqueness was embodied in the use of prehistoric animals as devices of technology. For example, when the characters took photographs with an instant camera, the inside of the camera box would be shown to contain a bird carving the picture on a stone tablet with its bill. In a running gag, the animals powering such technology would, breaking the fourth wall, look directly into the camera at the audience, shrug, and remark, "It's a living," or some similar phrase. Other commonly seen gadgets in the series included: *a baby woolly mammoth being used as a vacuum cleaner *an adult woolly mammoth would act as a shower by spraying water with its trunk *lifts being raised and lowered by ropes around brontosauruses' necks *"automatic" windows are powered by monkeys that dwell on the outside *birds configured as "car horns" and activated by pulling on their tails or squeezing their bodies *an electric razor is depicted as a clam shell housing a honey-bee vibrating it as the edges are rubbed against the character's face. *a pelican with a beakful of soapy water is used as a washing machine. *a woodpecker, whose beak is used to play a gramophone record, * a woodpecker that lives in a box and uses its beak to draw a picture of whatever is in front of it, thus being the equivalent of a photocamera Hollyrock Travel to "Hollyrock," a parody of Hollywood, usually involved an "airplane" flight—the "plane" in this case often shown as a giant pterodactyl. (Other familiar place names are similarly contorted: San Antonio becomes Sand-and-Stony-o; the country to the south of Bedrock's land is called Mexirock; and so forth.) as "Ann Margrock" was one of many famous names who lent their likenesses and voices to the series. She later appeared in The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas.]] Write the first paragraph of your article here. The Stone Age setting allowed for gags and puns involving rocks; the names of the various characters being "rock" puns. These included celebrities of the 1960s such as: *"Cary Granite" (Cary Grant) *"Stony Curtis" (Tony Curtis) *"Ed Sulleyrock/Sulleystone" (Ed Sullivan) *"Rock Pile/Quarry/Hudstone" (Rock Hudson) *"Ann-Margrock" (Ann-Margret) *"Jimmy Darrock" (James Darren) *"Alvin Brickrock" (Alfred Hitchcock) *"Perry Masonary/Masonite" (Perry Mason) *"Eppy Brianstone" (Brian Epstein) *"The Beau Brummelstones" (The Beau Brummels) Johnny Rivers once appeared on an episode of The Flintstones. The characters The Flintstones Extended family The Rubbles Extended family The Flintstone-Rubble Family Other characters Voices It has been noted that Fred Flintstone physically resembled voice actor Alan Reed, and also Jackie Gleason. The voice of Barney was provided by legendary voice actor Mel Blanc, though five episodes during the second season employed Hanna-Barbera regular Daws Butler while Blanc was incapacitated by a near-fatal car accident. Blanc was able to return to the series much sooner than expected, by virtue of a temporary recording studio for the entire cast set up at Blanc's bedside. It should be noted, however, that Blanc's portrayal of Barney Rubble had changed considerably after the accident. In the earliest episodes, Blanc had used a much higher pitch. After his recovery from the accident, Blanc used a deeper voice. Additional similarities with The Honeymooners included the fact that Reed based Fred's voice upon Jackie Gleason's interpretation of Ralph Kramden, while Blanc, after a season of using a nasal, high-pitched voice for Barney, eventually adopted a style of voice similar to that used by Art Carney in his portrayal of Ed Norton. The first time that the Art Carney-like voice was used was for a few seconds in "The Prowler" (the third episode produced). In a 1986 Playboy interview, Jackie Gleason said that Alan Reed had done voice-overs for Gleason in his early movies, and that he (Gleason) considered suing Hanna-Barbera for copying The Honeymooners but decided to let it pass. Another version of Jackie Gleason's view of the situation was that he fully intended to sue Hanna-Barbera for plagiarizing his program. According to Henry Corden, who took over as the voice of Fred Flintstone after Alan Reed died, and was a friend of Gleason’s, “Jackie’s lawyers told him that he could probably have The Flintstones pulled right off the air. But they also told him, “Do you want to be known as the guy who yanked Fred Flintstone off the air? The guy who took away a show that so many kids love, and so many parents love, too?” Henry Corden handled the voice responsibilities of Fred after Reed's death in 1977. Corden had previously provided Fred's singing voice in The Man Called Flintstone and later on Flintstones children's records. After 1999, Jeff Bergman performed the voice of Fred. Since Mel Blanc's death in 1989, Barney has been voiced by both Frank Welker and Kevin Richardson. Various additional character voices were created by Hal Smith, Allan Melvin, Janet Waldo, Daws Butler and Howard Morris, among others. Voice cast * Fred Flintstone – Alan Reed * Wilma Flintstone – Jean Vander Pyl * Pebbles Flintstone – Jean Vander Pyl (1963–1966) * Barney Rubble/Dino – Mel Blanc * Betty Rubble – Bea Benaderet (seasons 1-4/1960-1964) * Betty Rubble – Gerry Johnson (seasons 5-6/1964-1966) * Bamm-Bamm Rubble/Hoppy/Arnold – Don Messick (1963–1966) * Mrs. Slate – Jean Vander Pyl and Bea Benaderet * The Great Gazoo – Harvey Korman * Mr. Slate – John Stephenson Music The opening and closing credits theme during the first two seasons was called "Rise and Shine", a lively instrumental underscore accompanying Fred on his drive home from work. The tune resembled "The Bugs Bunny Overture (This is It!)," the theme song of "The Bugs Bunny Show," also airing on ABC at the time, and may have been the reason the theme was changed in the third season. Starting in Season 3, Episode 3 ("Barney the Invisible"), the opening and closing credits theme was the familiar vocal, "Meet the Flintstones". Production history Originally, the series was to have been titled The Flagstones, and a brief demonstration film was created to sell the idea of a "modern stone age family" to sponsors and the network. When the series itself was commissioned, the title was changed, possibly to avoid confusion with the Flagstons, characters in the comic strip Hi and Lois. After spending a brief period in development as The Gladstones (Gladstone being a Los Angeles telephone exchange at the time), Hanna-Barbera settled upon The Flintstones. Aside from the animation and fantasy setting, the show's scripts and format are typical of 1950s and 1960s American situation comedies, with the usual family issues resolved with a laugh at the end of each episode. Write the first paragraph of your article here. Although most Flintstones episodes are stand-alone storylines, the series did have a few story arcs. The most notable example was a series of episodes surrounding the birth of Pebbles. Beginning with the episode "The Surprise", aired midway through the third season (1/25/63), in which Wilma reveals her pregnancy to Fred, the arc continued through the trials and tribulations leading up to Pebbles' birth in the episode "Dress Rehearsal" (2/22/63), and then continued with several episodes showing Fred and Wilma adjusting to the world of parenthood. In Australia, the NINE Network ran a "Name the Flintstones' baby" competition during the 'pregnancy' episodes – few Australian viewers were considered sophisticated enough to have a USA connection giving them information about past 'Flintstone' shows. .]] The Flintstones also became the first primetime animated series to last more than two seasons;Cartoons this record wasn't surpassed by another primetime animated TV series until the third season of The Simpsons in 1992. A postscript to the arc occurred in the third episode of the fourth season, in which the Rubbles, depressed over being unable to have children of their own (making The Flintstones the first animated series in history to address the issue of infertility, though subtly), adopt Bamm-Bamm. The 100th episode made (but the 90th to air), Little Bamm-Bamm (10/3/63), established how Bamm-Bamm was adopted. About nine episodes were made before it, but shown after, which explains why Bamm-Bamm would not be seen again until episode 101, Daddies Anonymous (Bamm-Bamm was in a teaser on episode 98, Kleptomaniac Pebbles). Another story arc, occurring in the final season, centered on Fred and Barney's dealings with The Great Gazoo (voiced by Harvey Korman). Write the first paragraph of your article here. The series was initially aimed at adult audiences; the first two seasons were co-sponsored by Winston cigarettes and the characters appeared in several black and white television commercials for Winston (dictated by the custom, at that time, that the star{s} of a TV series often "pitched" their sponsor's product in an "integrated commercial" at the end of the episode). The Flintstones was the first American animated show to depict two people of the opposite sex (Fred and Wilma; Barney and Betty) sleeping together in one bed, although Fred and Wilma are sometimes depicted as sleeping in separate beds. For comparison, the first live-action depiction of this in American TV history was in television's first-ever sitcom: 1947's Mary Kay and Johnny.''http://www.snopes.com/radiotv/tv/marykay.htm The show contained a laugh track, common to most other sitcoms of the period. In the mid-1990s, when Turner Networks remastered the episodes, the original laugh track was removed. Currently, the shows airing on Boomerang and the DVD releases have the original laugh track restored to ''most episodes (a number of episodes from Seasons 1 and 2 still lack them). Some episodes, however, have a newer laugh track dubbed in, apparently replacing the old one. Because of this practice, the only episode to originally air without a laugh track ("Sheriff For a Day" in 1965) now has one. Reception In January 2009, IGN named The Flintstones as the ninth best in its "Top 100 Animated TV Shows". http://tv.ign.com/top-100-animated-tv-series/9.html Nielsen ratings The show was a top 30 hit for its first three seasons according to ClassicTVHits.com *1960–1961: #18 (24.3 rating) *1961–1962: #21 (22.9 rating) *1962–1963: #30 (20.5 rating) Films and subsequent TV series Following the show's cancellation in 1966, a film based upon the series was created. The Man Called Flintstone was a musical spy caper that parodied James Bond and other secret agents. The movie was released to theaters on August 3, 1966 by Columbia Pictures. It was released on DVD in Canada in March 2005 and in United States in December 2008. The show was revived in the early 1970s with Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm having grown into teenagers, and several different series and made-for-TV movies (broadcast mainly on Saturday mornings, with a few shown in prime time); including a series depicting Fred and Barney as police officers, another depicting the characters as children, and yet others featuring Fred and Barney encountering Marvel Comics superhero The Thing and comic strip character The Shmoo — have appeared over the years. The original show also was adapted into a live-action film in 1994, and a prequel, The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas, which followed in 2000. Theme parks At least two Flintstones-themed amusement parks exist in the United States, one in Custer, South Dakota and another in Arizona. Both have been in operation for decades. One previously existed in Australia at Australia's Wonderland as a Hanna Barbera theme, dominated by small children's rides, from 1985 up until the late '90s. Another existed until the 1990s at Carowinds in Charlotte, NC. A stage production opened at Universal Studios Hollywood in 1994 (the year the live action film was released), developed by Universal and Hanna-Barbera Productions. It opened at the Panasonic Theatre replacing the Star Trek Show. The story consists of Fred, Wilma, Barney and Betty heading for "Hollyrock". The show ran until January 2, 1997. Broadcast history * USA ** ABC (1960–1966) *** September 1960 – September 1963 Friday 8:30–9:00 *** September 1963 – December 1964 Thursday 7:30–8:00 *** December 1964 – September 1966 Friday 7:30–8:00 ** Television syndication (1966–1997) ** NBC (1977–1984) ** Cartoon Network (1992–2001) ** Boomerang (TV channel) (2000–present) ** CBS (1971–1973) * PBS (PBS Kids Bookworm Bunch) * Australia ** GO! (2009–Present) * Serbia ** RTV BK Telecom * England ** BBC2 (2008–present) * Chile ** TVN (1982-1990) ** Megavision(1992-1997) ** RED TV(1999-2003) ** TC Telecanal(2005-present) Flintstones series and spin-offs Television series * The Flintstones (1960–66) * The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show (1971–72) * The Flintstone Comedy Hour (1972–73) * Fred Flintstone and Friends (1977–78) * The New Fred and Barney Show (1979) * Fred and Barney Meet the Thing (1979) * Fred and Barney Meet the Shmoo (1979–80) * The Flintstone Comedy Show (1980–82) * The Flintstone Funnies (1982–84) * The Flintstone Kids (1986–88) * Dino: World Premiere Toons – featuring "Stay Out!" (1995) and "The Great Egg-Scape" (1997) * Cave Kids: Pebbles & Bamm-Bamm (2000) Theatrical animated feature * The Man Called Flintstone (1966, released by Columbia Pictures) Television specials * A Flintstone Christmas (1977) * The Flintstones: Little Big League (1978) * The Flintstones Meet Rockula and Frankenstone (1979) * The Flintstones' New Neighbors (1980) * The Flintstones: Fred's Final Fling (1980) * The Flintstones: Wind-Up Wilma (1981) * The Flintstones: Jogging Fever (1981) * The Flintstones' 25th Anniversary Celebration (1986) * The Flintstone Kids' "Just Say No" Special (1988) * A Yabba Dabba Doo Celebration: 50 years of Hanna-Barbera (1989) * A Flintstone Family Christmas (1993) Television movies * The Jetsons Meet the Flintstones (1987) * I Yabba-Dabba Do! (1993) * Hollyrock-a-Bye Baby (1993) * A Flintstones Christmas Carol (1994) * The Flintstones: On the Rocks (2001) Live action films * The Flintstones (1994) * The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas (2000) Other media :For a list of DVDs, video games, comic books, and VHS releases, see List of The Flintstones media. Awards for ''The Flintstones "The Flintstones" was nominated for an Emmy in 1961 for "Outstanding Program Achievement in the Field of Humor." They lost to "The Jack Benny Show." Popular culture In the 1960s the series had strong ties to a sponsor, Winston cigarettes, with the characters shown smoking the product during commercial breaks. This approach was not unusual for television at that time, either with tobacco or any other product. In one memorable advertisement, Fred and Barney relaxed while their wives did housework, smoking Winstons and reciting Winston's jingle, "Winston tastes good like a cigarette should!"Video of the commercial on YouTube In 1963, Winston pulled their sponsorship from the show when Wilma became pregnant; after that point, the main sponsor was Welch's Grape Juice. Welch's advertised their product with animated commercials featuring the cartoon cast and they were often pictured in print ads and on grape juice containers. In a few episodes, Pebbles is given grape juice as a treat. The characters from the series were used in an industrial film designed to promote the 1967 beer advertising campaigns for Anheuser-Busch. This film was released to the Anheuser-Busch distributors, and it was not seen by the general public until years later when bootleg copies began to circulate. The series spawned three breakfast cereals: Fruity Pebbles and Cocoa Pebbles, and the discontinued Dino Pebbles (later revived as "Marshmallow Mania Pebbles"). An enduring license has been a line of children's multivitamins called "Flintstones Complete" (more popularly known as Flintstones Vitamins); the first seasons of the series were, in part, sponsored by Miles Laboratories.Advertisements for the product are included in the DVD release for season 1. Miles's corporate successor, Bayer Corporation, continues to market Flintstones vitamins. More recently, the Flintstones have been seen in commercials for GEICO automotive insurance and Midas auto repair shops. Fred Flintstone's exclamation 'Yabba Dabba Dooo!', shouted in the opening credits as well as any time Fred became happy or excited, is widely known and repeated. The Screaming Blue Messiahs had a song called I Wanna Be a Flintstone on their album Bikini Red. It was later rereleased on the soundtrack album of the 1994 live action film The Flintstones. "Weird Al" Yankovic paid homage to the Flintstones in his song "Bedrock Anthem", a combined parody of "Under the Bridge" and "Give it Away", both by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, that even featured Flintstones voices and sound effects. It also was rereleased on the soundtrack album of the 1994 live action film The Flintstones. In 2009, Cash Money Records recorded their singer "BedRock". "BedRock" is the second single by rap group Young Money Entertainment from their debut collaboration album We Are Young Money. It is performed by Young Money artists Lil Wayne, Gudda Gudda, Nicki Minaj, Drake, Tyga, Jae Millz and features R&B singer Lloyd. It says in the song,"Call me Mr. Flinstone, I can make your bedrock." Episodes See also * Hanna-Barbera's All-Star Comedy Ice Revue – Hanna-Barbera characters honor Fred in an all-star celebrity roast for his birthday (1977) * The Jetsons * The Roman Holidays * George Shrinks * "Weird Al" Yankovic – "Bedrock Anthem" * Bedrock (song) References External links * [http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/F/htmlF/flintstones/flintstones.htm Museum of Broadcast Communications: ''The Flintstones] * Webrock: The Flintstones and Hanna-Barbera Site * * The Flintstones page at Toonopedia * * Category:PBS Kids Bookworm Bunch Category:Animated sitcoms * Category:1960s American animated television series Category:1960 television series debuts Category:1966 television series endings Category:Prehistoric people in popular culture Category:USA Cartoon Express Category:PBS Kids Bookworm Bunch